


Hidden Beneath Clothing

by anxious_soul



Series: Tony Stark-Centric Series [92]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Dialogue Heavy, Except Bucky Sam and Scott, F/M, Gen, Hidden Scars, Hurt Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Implied/Referenced Torture, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Not A Fix-It, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Scars, Tony Angst, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, kind of?, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:34:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27806908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxious_soul/pseuds/anxious_soul
Summary: In which, the Avengers sit around chatting and drinking, the conversation takes a turn to scars, everyone talks and shows theirs, and then it's Tony's turn.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark-Centric Series [92]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1126895
Comments: 23
Kudos: 316





	Hidden Beneath Clothing

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for all your comments both in general and for the ones helping me decide which prompt to use. I ended up doing a tally chart and 'hidden scar' had the most so I've gone with that one. I know a lot of you wanted it to relate to Afghanistan but I've sort of taken it away from that and made it about numerous scars. Sorry! But I hope you all still enjoy this; it is a bit dark though, so please read the tags.
> 
> Bad Things Happen Prompt(s): Hidden Scars
> 
> So in this I completely changed Infinity War around so that Thanos was killed, it was a team effort, Tony still got stabbed, but no one aside from Thanos and his army died. Also, there was no snapping of the gauntlet. Hope that clears things up!

Tony had always kept his scars hidden from the public. It was easy with an ego like his that people would never even conceive the idea that he was self-conscious, which he was. Years went by and his body became littered with more marks but the world was none the wiser. 

Until Rhodey came along when he was a scrawny little fourteen-year-old who didn’t belong at university and had already been dealt such a bad hand by fate. He was the first to see Tony’s scars and that was only by accident; it wasn’t until the genius had grown so attached to Rhodey that he told him a bit about the scars. Not all of them, but he gave enough away for the older boy to stop pressing and guess what he wasn’t told. 

Happy Hogan was the next addition to Tony’s small circle of friends even though the older man was his bodyguard; he was the next to learn about his hidden scars.

Finally, Pepper was the last to find out, but it took much longer for her to spot them. Mostly because Tony had a crush on her and was worried she’d deem him ugly for his scarred body. She didn’t and he fell for her more. 

No one else knew the depths of his scars; some he wasn’t able to cover such as the fine lines marking his fingers and hands born from his work. But no one else knew and that was how Tony wanted to keep things; it was no one’s business. No one needed to know about the scars he hid beneath his clothes. 

But, of course, nothing can truly remain a secret; the truth always comes out and in this case, it was Tony’s scarred body. Luckily, it was only the Avengers that found out and not the public. 

**——LINE BREAK——**

One night, the Avengers, new and old, were gathered in the sitting room at the rebuilt Avengers Compound; it had been three months since Thanos came and got destroyed by the superheroes, so they had decided to gather for a night of drinking and chatting with the children fast asleep in bed. There were eighteen of them scattered around the sofas in groups of fours and a single two: T’Challa, Thor, Vision and Bruce sat on the sofa furthest away but closest to the bar area, the sofa next to them held Dr Strange, Pepper, Tony and Rhodey, which had Carol and Fury’s two-seater beside it but facing the bar. After them, the sofas began to go back up towards the bar with another four-seater filled with Hope, Scott, Sam and Bucky. The final four-seater sofa that completed the horseshoe shape had Clint, Wanda, Natasha and Steve filling it. 

With drinks in their hands, conversations were being had with each other; voices overlapped as people talked to another on the other side of the room and so on. Tony was content to just sit there drinking and enjoying the friendly atmosphere, completely ignoring the sofa that held people that hated him.

Somehow as the night progressed and individual talks merged into a whole group one, the conversation took a strange turn to scars and the stories behind everyone's scars. One by one, clothes were pushed up or removed to tell the others about their scars and how they came about them. It started as a joke, but everyone quickly got into the conversation. They went around in the horse-shoe but started at Steve’s end. Soon enough Rhodey was sharing his scars and how he got them.

“And this one, god, Tones, do you remember this?” He said looking at him best friend before turning back to the room from where he was standing and pointing at a thick and ragged scar across his left side, “it was at MIT and this little shit got himself into some trouble -for the life of me, I can’t remember what because it was something new every other day- and a fight broke out; some dickhead pushed me into this glass door and despite the injury, I, of course, still beat the shit out of him because no one,” Rhodey looked at Steve and the others on his sofa, “hurts my best friend.” 

**——LINE BREAK——**

Then it was Tony’s turn and he froze as everyone looked at him expectantly. 

“Any interesting scars, Tony?” Carol asked when the room fell silent,

“As if he’s got any. Too much of a coward to get a single scratch let alone scar on him -besides, any he had probably got covered up with plastic surgery,” Wanda spat bitterly before he could say anything.

“You don’t have to, Tony,” Pepper whispered to the tense genius, “no one needs to see them,”

“Why should he get to get out of it? Scared we’re going to see just how ugly you are Stark?” Clint shouted,

“Barton!” Fury growled, whilst Tony never showed him the scars, the one-eyed man knew full well what lurked beneath his clothing; having been Tony’s unofficial godfather, he knew about the boy's childhood and could easily guess what marks his superhero life left on him. 

Tony knew he didn’t need to. He’d kept his scars a secret for years, but there was something about Clint and Wanda’s words along with the disgruntled and agreeing looks from Natasha and Steve that set him off and pushed him over the edge. If these _people_ only viewed bravery from battle wounds and scars, then so be it. He’d seen all of their scars already and knew for a fact that he had more than them combined. In one fell swoop, he’d stripped his long-sleeved t-shirt off along with his jogging bottoms leaving his body open for viewing with only his underwear on him. 

**——LINE BREAK——**

Scars ran up his arms; they stretched across his chest and torso, striking up his back and arching down his legs. There was barely a bit of his tan-skin that wasn’t marked with a silver scar. Gasps echoed through the room and faces paled in horror, but Tony didn’t care, despite his trembling, he began to tell them all about his scars. Starting with the most obvious; the lines darting around the centre of his chest where his arc reactor once laid. 

“This one was from my wonderful, five-star vacation in Afghanistan where I had open-heart surgery in a cave; some of the smaller scars are from the shrapnel, but this big one right here is from them butchering me open to force a bigger piece of metal into me.” He turned around to show his back that was littered with thick lines that most of them could nauseously guess what caused them, “and these are from the terrorists _ripping_ my back to shreds with a whip when I refused to build them that fucking missile.” He turned back around.

**——LINE BREAK——**

“This one here is from Thanos stabbing me with my own weapon,” he gestured to the slit that had only recently healed and scarred that had a mirroring scar on his back, then Tony pointed upwards back towards his arc reactor scars; he ran a gentle finger over a long, arching scar that ran across his chest, “and this, well, I’m sure our _dear_ captain can tell you about this one.” Whilst Captain _Marvel_ was considered the actual captain, everyone knew he was talking about Steve, who paled and looked horrified, “after all, slamming a shield into a _baseline_ human’s chest is bound to leave a mark.”

**——LINE BREAK——**

“These burn marks are from Howard being a drunken arsehole and using my arm as an ashtray for his cigars,” he indicated to his right arm, “and well, these should be obvious,” he held up both wrists, “are from my quote: ‘very dramatic suicide attempt for attention’ unquote as Howard called it and you lot no doubt will believe.” The scars on his wrists were faded, but it was noticeable how jagged they were, especially his right hand’s scar. Rhodey and Pepper, who knew full well about his attempt, held hands out of comfort because at that moment, Tony was on a roll and was standing up so they couldn’t with him. All around the room, the others sat straighter and tenser, especially Fury, who was almost growling with rage towards Howard.

**——LINE BREAK——**

“My hands are littered with burns and scars from the workshop; some marks on my legs are also from there. The large rigged scars at the back of my legs are from dear old dad pushing my out of the window, my legs caught the broken glass and ripped them to shreds,” he pointed to the faint mark around his right eye that the Avengers could’ve sworn wasn’t normally visible, “this is from my faceplate cutting into my face after it being beaten and broken,” he gestured to his neck where there’s a similar mark, “and once again, this is from the armour digging into my neck.” Tony then pointed to the back of his neck, where another jagged scar could be seen stretching down to the top of his shoulders and back, “this is from Loki throwing me out of my reinforced glass back in 2012.”

**——LINE BREAK——**

The scarred genius continued to point out smaller scars, but the Avengers got the point. He was more scarred than they could have imagined and that’s not including the scars littered around his mind. They were horrified that the man beneath the mask had been through so much.

“Oh, god, Tony,” Bruce whispered looking a little green, whether it was from the Hulk or from feeling sick, no one knew. 

“How… how did we never see them?” Natasha murmured looking shocked,

“Because I’ve been hiding my scars since I was four and my father left a permanent mark on my skin,” he answered, “because I didn’t want anyone to know about them. I didn’t want the questions I’d be hassled to answer. These scars are mine and mine alone, no one needs to know about them because unlike some, scars do not represent bravery or cowardliness. They just tell a story, a story that people are easily able to share if they want to without a visual representation. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.”

His wife and his best friend were quick to follow the retreating man to comfort him. Fury wanted to go, but instead, he opted to glare at the sofa that held the four Avengers that had caused him a lot of trouble and had yet to be forgiven. Or rather, they had yet to apologise because they didn’t think they’d done anything wrong (unlike the incredibly apologetic Scott, Sam and Bucky).

The scars were never mentioned again.

**Author's Note:**

> Next is 'I', which will be Impaled Chest, though I have no clue how to write it up! I have a few assessments going on at the minute and so this one might be a bit slow to get up, but who knows!
> 
> [My tumblr](https://anxious---soul.tumblr.com) feel free to say hi or something!  
> 
> 
> Anyway,  
> Thank you for reading,  
> Hope you enjoyed this,  
> Please leave a kudos and a comment  
> 


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